Hi, everybody,
One of the activities I would like to encourage in ComplexityNoodles is
collaborative reviews of important books. Rosen has attracted considerable
discussion both in Friam and in a Blender a few weeks back, so I imagine that
Friamers may be interested in helping to create a collaborative review of his
book, Life Itself. I have been carrying around Steve Guerin's copy of this book
for the last month, and it does, at the very minimum, seem like serious work to
me. What I mean by "serious" is that even though it is very hard to read, and
contains many odd usages of terms, still, it is worthy of our respect if only
because the author is consistent in the use of his own language.
So, as I get time, I am going to do a systematic review of the Chapters of Life
Itself and post them at http://www.sfcomplex.org/wiki/RosenNoodles My
colleague and old friend, John Kennison, a mathematician, is going to help me
out. He is interesting in establishing whether the mathematics in Life Itself
are necessary to the project or whether they are windowdressing. I hope others
will join us. I will need all the help I can get coming to terms with this
challenging book.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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